24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year B

Readings:
Isaiah 50:5-9a
Psalm 116:1-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35

The Theme of the Readings: Obedience in Taking Up the Cross of Christ
The Christian's mission is to pattern their life after the life, death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's readings focus on being willing to take up the cross of suffering and following in the footsteps of our Savior.

The First Reading is from the third song of the "Servant of Yahweh" in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah's four Servant Songs describe God's ideal Servant-Son. Christians applied the Servant hymns to Jesus from the Church's earliest years. He fulfills the four songs in His atoning and self-sacrificial death that liberated humanity from bondage to sin and death. In today's reading, the third song introduces the Gospel theme of the necessity of taking up the burden of suffering and following Jesus, the Redeemer-Messiah, who suffered and died for us.

In the Responsorial Psalm's communal response, we profess our willingness to keep to the path of obedience God set before us as the way to eternal life. The psalmist proclaims his gratitude and commitment to remain faithful to the Lord and expresses his confidence that one day he will be with the Lord in the "land of the living," God's heavenly Kingdom. We can declare the same confidence in the Lord only if we are willing to submit to Christ in what Saint Paul called "the obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5; 16:26).

In the Second Reading, St. James teaches that faith without demonstrating deeds of righteousness is an empty and unproductive faith, like a body without a soul. We must express genuine Christian love by trying to help others, even if it requires personal sacrifice. Our obedience on the path to salvation begins with the Sacrament of Baptism. However, our journey is a process that only ends when we reach our final destination, the throne room of God on the Day of Judgment where Christ will evaluate the sincerity of our faith in light of our works of mercy and love (Mt 25:31-46).

In the Gospel Reading, St. Peter rebukes Jesus when he cannot reconcile Jesus's announcement of suffering with the acceptance of His Messiahship when Jesus reveals His destiny to suffer, die, and then rise from the dead on the third day in the first prediction of His Passion. Jesus rebukes Peter and teaches His Jewish disciples and all generations of believers about the necessity of taking up our crosses and following in His footsteps. In the obedience of faith, we should be willing to die to our egotistic selves to live in His image so we can be resurrected to live with Him forever. When we suffer as we struggle to carry our crosses, we must remember to pray the words from today's Responsorial Psalm: "I fell into distress and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the LORD [Yahweh], 'O LORD [Yahweh], save my life'" (Ps 113:3b-4). The "life" with the greatest value is not the temporal earthly life but eternal life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
(Agape Bible Study)
(Psalms for the Liturgical Year (livingwithchrist.ca))
(OCP Worship Resources    / @ocpworshipresources  )

00:00 – Intro
00:16 – Collect
00:43 – First Reading
01:28 – Responsorial Psalm
05:09 – Second Reading
05:53 – Gospel Reading
07:20 – Recommended Videos